Story of the Year

The Body-Image Breakthrough As mainstream culture embraced body positivity in 2015, the running world became a source of inspiration. There was Derek Mitchell, the Missouri man who in March, at 570 pounds, declared it his mission to run a 5K every month for the rest of the year. As of September he’d not only grown a following that included more than 17,000 Facebook fans, he’d already outpaced his goal by finishing his 17th race, including two 10Ks (and lost 100 pounds). Ultrarunner and Fat Girl Running blogger Mirna Valerio inspired America after appearing in Runner’s World and on NBC. Plus-size model Erica Jean Schenkgot major props for posing on the cover of Women’s Running. England’s Lindsey Swift became a viral star after penning an open letter on Facebook to a man who tried to “fat-shame” her on a run. The only shame in all of this: that it’s taken so long for the public to celebrate athletes of all sizes.

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Records of the Year

World Marks Months after setting the 5,000-meter indoor world record, Genzebe Dibaba of Ethiopia outdid herself at a July IAAF Diamond League meet in Monaco by going for 3:50.07 in the 1500—a four-second PR—en route to breaking the world mark set by China’s Qu Yunxia in 1993. In the process, she paced Shannon Rowbury to a 3:56.29, which broke Mary Decker Slaney’s 32-year-old American record. Ashton Eaton showed his running prowess by posting the fastest decathlon 400-meter time ever at the world championships in Beijing en route to breaking his own WR in the overall event and taking home his sixth consecutive global multi-event gold title.

Happy Trails Ultramarathoning great Scott Jurek had one massive achievement of endurance on his bucket list before he could call it a career: the Appalachian Trail through-hike speed record. In July, the 41-year-old completed the Georgia-to-Maine gauntlet after 46 days, eight hours, and seven minutes in the woods—mere hours faster than the old mark. His champagne celebration atop Mount Katahdin attracted controversy in the form of three park citations, two of which were dropped after Jurek agreed to pay $500 for drinking in public. As the saying goes: It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out—it’s the pebble in your shoe.

Trends of the Year

The Social Runner Rules A majority of runners who participated in Running USA’s 2015 National Runner Survey said that they post race results and photos on social media. The running world, it appears, isn’t immune to selfie fever. Anybody who ran a road race in 2015 could corroborate the prevalence of people pausing midstride for a quick snap—particularly in noncompetitive events like color runs. You can even find video of an entire 10K run with a selfie stick on YouTube. The trend may irk some, but it’s not without its benefits if you happen to be in the right place at the right time: Troy Wayrynen won a National Press Photographers Association award this spring for—wait for it—snapping a photo of a high school runner snapping a photo of himself.

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Rise of the Machine What’s that in the sky? In the last year, runners weren’t just spying birds and planes—but also drones. The applications for unmanned aerial vehicles are varied for running. Some races, like the Big Sur International Marathon and Zane Grey 50-miler, use them to provide unique perspectives of the proceedings—though others, like the Boston and NYC marathons, have banned them. There’s also potential for individuals: Australian researchers have experimented with using quadcopters to assist runners interested in allowing a robot to guide and pace them. There are safety concerns; in 2014 a triathlete was struck in the head and injured by a wayward device. As the technology improves, however, drones will almost certainly play a key role in the future of running.

Data Deluge If drones represent running’s “hardware” frontier, a number of developments this past year may signal where we’re headed with software. The big shoe and apparel brands—Nike and Under Armour, in particular—have been duking it out in the fitness-tracking space. In an effort to catch industry-leader Nike, UA has recently snapped up $710 million in health apps, including MapMyFitness, MyFitnessPal, and Endomondo, and according to a survey released in September, the moves have worked: Its Connected Fitness platform was ranked the most preferred fitness app among women. Our running has been applied in some other unexpected ways, such as a global heat map released by Strava late last year that reveals popular running routes. And in August, Shoekicker.com launched with an intriguing goal: Aggregate shoe prices online to provide runners with the best deals for their favorite models.

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Scandal of the Year

Who’s the Dope? The steady stream of doping headlines this year provided cause to both celebrate the strides made by clean-sport crusaders and bemoan the tarnished integrity of elite running. In January, then-reigning Boston and Chicago champ Rita Jeptoo received a two-year ban after testing positive for EPO. In June, former Nike Oregon Project members alleged that coach Alberto Salazar and runner Galen Rupp had broken drug rules (both have denied it, and USADA is investigating). And in August, a German journalist alleged rampant doping in Russia and Kenya; Liliya Shobukhova of Russia, the second-fastest female marathoner ever, was stripped of numerous titles for doping; the IAAF suspended 28 athletes after using new technology to retest past blood samples; and the Court of Arbitration for Sport took away Asli Cakir Alptekin’s 2012 Olympic gold in the 1500 after her second doping violation.

Books of Year

Racing the Rain Quenton Cassidy, protagonist of the classic 1978 novel Once a Runner, made his return in author John L. Parker Jr.’s prequel, Racing the Rain. In it, readers learn how a young Cassidy discovered his natural running ability through his first love, basketball. Set in muggy 1950s and ‘60s Florida, the coming of age tale is rich in intrigue and local color, delving into Cassidy’s complicated friendship with a swamp-wise trapper. In a literary year marked by a more controversial character’s return (Atticus Finch in Harper Lee’s Mockingbird follow-up, Go Set a Watchman), a few more miles with Cassidy felt like a breath of fresh air, humidity be damned.

Fast Girl Nearly three years after The Smoking Gun reported that former Olympic middle-distance runner Suzy Favor Hamilton had worked as a high-end Las Vegas escort, she released her side of the story in the memoir Fast Girl: A Life Spent Running from Madness. In it, Hamilton goes in depth about struggles that followed her retirement from pro running, including depression, her bipolar disorder, and suicidal thoughts. She details her passion for running but also the anxiety it brought her, admitting that she intentionally fell during the 1500-meter final at the 2000 Olympics. Anyone looking for an honest look at mental health will find it a worthwhile read.

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Debate of the Year

Carb Wars Or is it a fat spat? The year’s top discussion in sports nutrition was over carb-fat consumption ratios. South African scientist Tim Noakes, M.D., coauthor of the best-seller The Real Meal Revolution, championed the benefits of low-carb, high-fat diets to his detriment: he faced an ethics hearing in November over tweeting similar dietary advice for babies. In August, new results from an NIH study suggested the opposite: that low-fat/high-carb diets were better than low-carb/high-fat ones for losing body fat. In other words, the best dietary path is as muddled as ever.

Runners of the Year

Still the Best One was challenged by his health and a fierce rival, the other by the doping drama surrounding his coach. But after the world championships in Beijing, any doubt that Usain Bolt and Mo Farah were the unquestioned masters of their disciplines had been roundly quashed. Bolt had spent much of the past year dealing with injuries and watching American Justin Gatlin emerge as one of the fastest 100- and 200-meter runners in the world, but under the bright lights, the Jamaican superstar won gold in both distances. Farah, meanwhile, spent months defending himself as his coach, Alberto Salazar, was accused of breaking doping rules. The British great distanced himself from the scandal en route to double golds of his own in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters, matching his haul at the 2012 Olympics and 2013 worlds.

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Pick up the December 2015 issue of Runner’s World for more running highlights of the year.

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